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Monday, May 6, 2013

Beautiful Weather

Cloudy start
What a wonderful morning for a hike.  For most of the trek it was heavily overcast, with a light wind that kept the ambient temperature cool.  The sun peeked out occasionally during 2/3 of the walkabout, but finally broke through completely for the final third.  There weren't very many people on the mountain, but on our way back we did see Greg heading for the crest.  We waved at each other from a distance and exchanged greetings.  He always asks about how Becca is enjoying her hike.
Purple Prickly Pear Cactus

Becca spots a rabbit

This one:  a Desert Cottontail

Growing season in the Mesilla Valley

Vigilant trailblazer

Really blurry photo of a sparrow-like bird with yellow throat

View across the desert to the Organ Mountains

On the road back to Tortugas

Sun finally breaking through

Well-deserved rest on a desert hike

3 comments:

Scott said...

Packrat: Two items. First, my "Birds of North America" does not list a Yellow-throated Sparrow. The bird in the image, admittedly blurry, looks like a warbler to me, not a sparrow. Could it be a Yellow-rumped Warbler?

Second, my academic entomologist friend was stumped by your desert lugnuts--even when I sent him your descriptions and the two images from your earlier post in which you were holding one of the lugnuts I suggested to him that the lugnuts might be entrance tunnels created by a trapdoor spider. He said that they very well might be, since he couldn't think of any insect that would make anything like them. What do you think about my suggestions?

Dr. K said...

Your photos today are especially beautiful, Packrat.

packrat said...

Turns out there is a Yellow-throated Sparrow, Scott, just not on this continent.

http://www.pbase.com/dophoto/image/125647465

The thing is the bird I photographed looked an awful lot like the Yellow-throated Sparrow. Definitely not a warbler, especially not the Yellow-rumped. "Mine" definitely had a sparrow beak and was the same size. I'll keep searching

As far as the dirt lugnuts go, I appreciate your help. Thank your friend for me, too. Your guess is as good as mine as to what made them, but I'm going to keep searching. I'll let you know if I discover anything definitive about them. Thanks for your suggestions.

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